Director, Legal Operations & Strategy

We are looking for a strategic and forward-thinking Director of Legal Operations to help take our legal function to the next level. This role is key to maturing our legal operations capabilities and delivering value across efficiency, innovation, and performance. You’ll work with a legal team of 100+ professionals around the world, anchored at our headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and help shape how we deliver legal services in a fast-changing global environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and evolve the Legal Operations function, managing core areas such as outside counsel management, budget and spend analytics, legal technology, process improvement, change management, and vendor management.
• Accelerate the implementation and adoption of our outside counsel panel, including performance tracking, relationship management, and cost optimization.
• Partner closely with legal leadership to identify and implement innovative tools and practices that enable attorneys and legal staff to work more effectively and efficiently.
• Develop and refine metrics and KPIs to measure performance, identify trends, and drive accountability across the legal department.
• Manage the department's financial planning, including budgeting, accruals, forecasting, and spend reporting.
• Support knowledge management, training, and process standardization initiatives across a global legal team.
• Collaborate with IT, Finance, Compliance, and business operations to align Legal Ops strategy with enterprise goals.
• Evaluate, implement, and strategically oversee legal technology solutions, such as e-billing, contract lifecycle management, and matter management systems.
• Drive the adoption of legal technologies, including AI-driven platforms, to streamline workflows and enhance data-driven decision-making.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in legal operations, management consulting, or a related field; prior in-house legal department experience strongly preferred.
• Proven success leading a legal operations function at scale—ideally in a global, matrixed organization.
• Deep understanding of legal department operations, including outside counsel management, legal tech, e-billing, and process improvement.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and drive decisions.
• Effective communicator and collaborator across all levels of the organization.
• Proven track record of successfully building and leading teams.
• Familiarity with leading legal technologies and tools (e.g., CLM, eBilling, workflow automation).
• Demonstrated experience developing metrics and dashboards for workload analysis.
• Bachelor's degree required; JD or MBA a plus.

Why Join Us
Western Union has connected people and enabled opportunity across borders for more than a century and a half. As our Director of Legal Operations, you’ll play a critical role in modernizing our global legal function—empowering lawyers, improving how we work, and ultimately helping our company continue to deliver trusted financial services at scale.

We make financial services accessible to humans everywhere. Join us for what is next.

Western Union is positioned to become the world’s most accessible financial services company transforming lives and communities. We are a diverse and passionate customer-centric team of over 8,000 employees serving 200 countries and territories, reaching customers and receivers around the globe. More than moving money, we design easy-to-use products and services for our digital and physical financial ecosystem that help our customers move forward.

Just as we help our global customers prosper, we support our employees in achieving their professional aspirations. You will have plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and build a career, as well as receive a great compensation package. If you are ready to help drive the future of financial services, it is time for Western Union. Learn more about our purpose and people at https://careers.westernunion.com/.

Salary

The base salary range is $160,000 - $190,000 USD per year, total on target compensation includes a base salary plus a variable target incentive that aligns with individual and company performance.

Benefits

You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few (https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/). Please see the location-specific benefits below and note that your Recruiter may share additional role-specific benefits during your interview process or in an offer of employment.

Your United States – specific benefits include:

• Flexible Time off
• Medical, Dental and Life Insurance
• Tuition Assistance Program
• Parental Leave

Western Union values in-person collaboration, learning, and ideation whenever possible. We believe this creates value through common ways of working and supports the execution of enterprise objectives which will ultimately help us achieve our strategic goals. By connecting face-to-face, we are better able to learn from our peers, problem-solve together, and innovate. 

Our Hybrid Work Model categorizes each role into one of three categories. Western Union has determined the category of this role to be Hybrid. This is defined as a flexible working arrangement that enables employees to divide their time between working from home and working from an office location. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week. 

For residents of Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania: Please do not respond to any questions on this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

We are passionate about inclusion. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, political affiliation, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants, including those with disabilities, during the recruitment process, following applicable laws.

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Estimated Job Posting End Date:

This application window is a good-faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.